Japanese consulting firm Nomura Research Institute, which is an affiliate of financial services giant Nomura Holdings, has launched a tradable cryptocurrency index in partnership with cryptocurrency investment solution provider Intelligence Unit. The index, which is meant for financial institutions, will track a basket of cryptocurrencies and can be traded in US dollars and yen. Though several financial companies have launched services for institutional investors, the inflow of money into the crypto space has been slow. Bitcoin options trading on Intercontinental Exchange’s digital asset platform Bakkt has been lackluster with nil volume reported for the past few days. Daily cryptocurrency market …

According to a statement earlier today, Jan. 28, Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com is backing down from the 12.5% mining tax on Bitcoin Cash they proposed along with other major BCH mining pools owing to the community’s overwhelming negative response to the proposal. Bitcoin.com’s position Last week, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) personalities proposed a 12.5% tax on mining rewards that would ostensibly go to funding network development. Now Bitcoin.com has rejected the proposed mining tax unless serious alterations are made: "As it stands now, Bitcoin.com will not go through with supporting any plan unless there is more agreement in the ecosystem such that …

Investors are rushing into various safe haven assets as the coronavirus death toll in China rises and the virus spreads in various Asian countries, the US, parts of Europe and Australia. Usually, the initial reaction to any crisis is to dump all asset classes but gradually, the investors start to differentiate between asset classes as they analyze the effect the crisis can have on them. After the initial sell-off in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies due to the coronavirus scare, the crypto markets have stabilized and are rising once again. The total market capitalization of the crypto universe has risen from …

Leading Bitcoin Cash (BCH) personalities, including Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu and Bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver, proposed on Jan. 22 an “infrastructure funding plan” that would see miners donate 12.5 percent of all block rewards to a Hong Kong entity. Many in the community turned harsh critics of the proposal. The fund would be used to promote Bitcoin Cash development, which the miners argue is a “far better solution” than having independent “corporate donors,” such as the Blockstream company for Bitcoin (BTC). The initial funding would be activated in May 2020 and run for six months. The expected revenue, based on …

The International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath said in a panel discussion at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos that Facebook’s Libra was a major trigger that made people reconsider the status of the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. Brazil's Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, who was also a part of the panel, said that “the Libra episode is just evoking a future digital currency.” In order to help policymakers understand the central bank digital currency (CBDC) better, the WEF in collaboration with some of the world's major central banks and experts from over 40 …

Recently Hiromi Yamaoka, the former head of payments and settlements at the Bank of Japan, said that Facebook’s Libra has forced central banks to research and consider issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Currently China is leading the race in developing a CBDC but it appears that other nations are now attempting to play catch up. In a press release, the Bank of England said that the central banks of Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, the European Union, Sweden and Switzerland have joined hands with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to form a working group tasked with researching CBDCs. …

The total market capitalization of the crypto space rallied from about $184 billion on Jan. 3 to a high of $250 billion on Jan. 19. That is a 35% gain within a short span of time. Usually, fast-paced rallies do not last long, hence, for the long-term health of the markets, it is better to have rallies with intermittent corrections. Bitcoin has been following the Stock-to-Flow model fairly accurately. The model’s creator, an analyst known as PlanB, believes that the price of Bitcoin is likely to average around $8,200 until the halving event in May of this year. Thereafter, the …

Most major cryptocurrencies have started the new year on a positive note. However, in the past 24 hours, the crypto markets are witnessing a sea of red. This shows that the rally has hit a roadblock, which could result in a minor correction or consolidation for the next few days. Such a move will be healthy for the crypto markets because it will shake out the weaker hands. The next dip will also give an idea about the cryptocurrencies that have bottomed out and have started a new uptrend. Acclaimed veteran trader Peter Brandt believes that Bitcoin has bottomed out …

The total crypto market capitalization has risen from about $190.5 billion at the start of the year to over $243 billion. That is a rise of about 27.55% within 17 days. This shows that the bulls are back in action. Another interesting thing to note is that the rally is led by altcoins, which are outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) by a huge margin. This shows that the current rally is more broad-based, announcing the arrival of altseason. Digital asset management firm Grayscale Investments reported that $225.5 million in investments flowed into its products in Q4 2019. That took the total investment …

The crypto space is making a comeback and the rally is being led by altcoins. While several altcoins might participate in the initial rally, we believe that the market will start differentiating between each cryptocurrency based on its fundamentals. Hence, traders should avoid buying the non-performers expecting a repeat of the previous bull market when every altcoin staged a parabolic rally. When compared against altcoins, Bitcoin (BTC) has been an underperformer over the past few days. Its dominance rate, which had risen above 69% on Jan. 8, dipped below 66% on Jan 15. On Jan. 14 Bitwise Asset Management withdrew …

UPDATE 1/15/19 1730 UTC: This article has been modified to reflect the fact that the recent filing refers to Wright having provided a list of wallet addresses rather than the private keys that would give him access to their contents. Craig Wright, the polarizing figure who may or may not be Satoshi Nakamoto, is today telling the court that he has received the public keys associated an $8.9 billion crypto fortune called the Tulip Trust. Some background on what that means: Wright was a business partner to one David Kleiman, and they mined a lot of Bitcoin together back when …

On Tuesday Bitcoin price (BTC) pushed through $8,600 and rallied all the way to $8,859 before taking what appears to be a breather near $8,750. As reported earlier by Cointelegraph, crypto analyst Tone Vays predicted that if Bitcoin price gained above $8,600, $8,800 would serve as the next level of stiff resistance. At the time of writing Bitcoin is up 7.74% for the day and it appears that a strong trend reversal is in the making as the price has sustained above the descending channel trendline for the last 20-hours. Cryptocurrency market weekly overview. Source: Coin360 Altcoins also steadfastly followed …